


Team Free Will Loves Team God Squad

by whereareyoucas



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Online Dating, GISHWHES, Internet, M/M, Online Friendship, Shy Dean, Skype, Slow Build, Social Anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-24
Updated: 2014-12-15
Packaged: 2018-02-18 15:38:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2353634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whereareyoucas/pseuds/whereareyoucas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A GISHWHES romance! Dean is a shy and reclusive person, living with his brother and feeling shitty about himself, but Sam tries to help Dean out by signing them up for GISHWHES, which is where he meets the outgoing Castiel. GISHWHES craziness to be expected, including a law-breaking visit to Vegas, and friendships in the making.</p><p>Warning: Includes swearing, peni and bacon. Proceed at your own caution.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So in this universe, GISHWHES is just a thing ran by a guy I guess.  
> This is partly slightly based on my own GISHWHES experience in 2013, and I rlly rlly think everyone should give it a go, it is srsly so fun and amazing  
> The story gets a bit less angsty/serious when GISHWHES starts so yeah  
> pls enjoy xo

“Yo, Dean, get in here, I’ve found something cool,” Sam yelled from the sitting room of the Winchester’s small apartment.

“What is it?” Dean yelled back. At this moment he was kind of busy trying to install a speaker in the arm of his chair. He was too poor to buy a fancy recliner with it already built in, plus he loved tinkering, so he had decided he’d try and do it himself.

“Get your ass in here!” came his little brother’s insistent yell.

“This better not be another rock formation or rare species of frog or whatever else nerdy things you look up on there, I’m busy,” Dean said, reluctantly walking into the room to receive Sam’s bitch face before he handed him the laptop.

“What’s GISHWHES?” Dean asked bewilderedly, looking at the weird dog chicken on the screen.

“It stands for the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen.” As if that explained anything. Dean continued looking at his brother blankly.

“It’s ran my Misha Collins. It’s the thing Charlie was going on about a couple weeks ago.”

“Oh, wait, is it that thing where you have to do loads of really whacky things and embarrassing shit?”

“Yeah! But- but it’s for a good cause, a lot of the tasks are acts of kindness and stuff from it goes to Misha’s charity, and it sounds really fun. My point is that we should do it.”

“Why?”

“It will be fun, and a lot of people who’ve participated before say it’s gotten them out of their shells, helped them meet great people and just generally boosted their confidence, and I think it would be really good for you,” Sam spoke fast so that Dean couldn’t interrupt.

After opening and closing his mouth a few times, Dean thought of a weak excuse. “But I don’t need to boost my confidence.”

“Dude. You haven’t been out of the house for like three weeks.”

Dean sighed. Sam was always doing this, ever since he moved in with him. Dean still felt guilty about that.

_In short, Dean’s pathetic story was this. He never really got into the whole ‘friend making’ thing. He really just preferred the company of his family, and himself. He could still work with people and everything, he was just a bit of a loner. That was until his mom died. That really changed him. He became even more reclusive, and he developed anxiety. Before, he just hadn’t really liked people, but now they scared him. By the time he was a teenager, Dean began having panic attacks. He was useless, missing school, and just pissing off his dad, who had enough to deal with- the grief of losing his wife and the strife of bringing up Sam and Dean on his own. Understandably, in Dean’s opinion, John turned to alcoholism._

_Unfortunately, he died in a drink driving accident when Sam was around nineteen. His life insurance left the Winchester brothers with a little bit of money thankfully. Not that Sam needed it anyway, because he’d got himself a really good scholarship in Lawrence. Dean however, had to get out. He had to get out of the house, the town, the state where his mom and dad died, the state where his life was going wrong. After finding Sammy a place to stay with a trusted family friend, Dean moved to South Dakota of all places, a place called Sioux Falls. Some old friends of John lived there, so Dean had visited there as a kid. He had some good memories there, and that’s what inspired the move. He needed good memories to build the foundation of his supposed new life on. He got a placement in a college, got a job at The Roadhouse, and things began looking up. A week later, he had a massive panic attack that shook him worse than ever before. He quit college, and changed his timetable to only come into Ellen’s a couple days a week, and sometimes he didn’t even manage that. It’s been a few years since then, and Dean’s still a nervous wreck and a recluse, but now Sam was living with him. Sam had moved to Sioux Falls to go to a Law School there, even though it was obvious he could’ve got into Stanford, at least. Dean expressed his guilt to Sam, but the younger brother would just remind Dean that he had free will._

So that was Dean’s life in less than four hundred words. Wow, that made him feel shitty. But there was nothing really to do about it. Sam was stubborn like that. Dean would be happy just continuing living his life like he was- yeah sure he was barely getting by on the money from his job at The Roadhouse, and yeah sure he barely left the house, but he could deal. Now Sam was living with him and constantly encouraging him to get out of the house, go to college, and shit like that. Sam was worried about him. It was horrible, Dean felt like the younger brother. But Sam had managed to get Dean a few friends. They were few, but they were something.

So despite the searing guilt and depressing facts, Dean was actually kind of glad to have Sammy with him. He’d missed the giant dork.

“Dean,” Sam clicked his fingers in front of Dean’s face, giving an abrupt end to Dean’s reminiscing. “So, what? You in?”

“I dunno...”

“What’s there to lose?” Sam’s bitch face had fully transformed into his second most used face, the puppy dog face. His brown eyes looked so earnest, Dean knew he was trying to help him.

“Fine, ok, if it will make you happy. And stop looking at me like that, bitch,” Dean grumbled.

“You’re a jerk,” Sam said triumphantly.

 

Later that evening, they were at the bar. Dean was working his shift and Sam was on his laptop. This place was where some of Dean’s rare friends hung out. The owner was Ellen, the old friend of his dad, and the one kind enough to let him keep his job, no matter how many times he’d missed it. Despite Ellen’s hard exterior, she was a softy on the inside, and was like an Aunt to Dean. A scary Aunt that could kick his ass, but could also understand his problems and give him a bit of slack when needed. He didn’t think he could count Ellen as a friend because she was definitely more family than friend.

Then there was Jo, Ellen’s daughter. He thinks he could count her as a friend. She was a couple years younger than him, and also worked at the bar. She was bad ass. She could beat almost anyone at Poker. Dean and Jo got along quite well, seeing as they had played together since they were young, and Dean was very glad to count her as a friend.

When Sam had come to Sioux Falls, Ellen and Jo had greeted him welcome warmly, and he had easily been integrated into their lives.

Dean looked up from the table he was wiping down, and saw that Ellen, Jo and Sam were watching him. He stalked over, a look of concern on his countenance.

“What?”

“I was just telling them about Gishwhes,” Sam explained innocently. Dean resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “What do you think?”

“No,” Ellen said, levelling a glare at Sam, as if she was insulted that Sam would even ask her.

“Hell yeah!” Jo exclaimed, causing her mother to roll her eyes.

“That’s great!”

“Actually,” Ellen begun, “this is exactly the kind of stupid thing that Garth would love.”

“Of course, Garth! I’ll ring him when I get home,” Sam exclaimed. Dean inwardly groaned. It looked like Gishwhes was definitely happening then. And now Garth was involved. Dean didn’t mind the guy really, his only problem was with how much Garth hugged people. He was a regular at the Roadhouse, and would get drunk very easily, almost accidentally. It was ok though, drunk Garth was like normal Garth, just a bit dizzier and happier. Dean would frequently find himself calling a taxi for Garth, and waiting outside with him. Dean didn’t know if he could really count Garth as a friend, when Garth was friends with everyone he spoke to, even if they didn’t want to be friends, but he did enjoy their conversations. Just not the inevitable hugging that finishes each conversation.

A few quiet hours later, Dean drove Sam home. In the car Sam was jabbering about the scavenger hunt and how he’d have to phone Charlie as soon as they got in.

“Speak of the devil,” Dean said, as he pulled into park. He spotted a bright haired girl sitting with her back to their front door, engrossed in her iPad.

Charlie was technically Sam’s friend. She had attacked him in the university library when she found out he hadn’t read Lord of the Rings. But Charlie had invited herself to Sam’s apartment a few weeks later, almost giving Dean a heart attack when he walked into his room wearing only a small towel over his dick, and Charlie had been on the bed reading his Popular Mechanics magazine. After Dean could start breathing again, he found they had a lot in common, and he could talk to her almost easily, which was rare.

Now she was sat at the Winchester’s door, not bothering to get up when they stood over her.

“Howdy,” she greeted. Before they could say anything she held up her finger for silence. A few more taps on her tablet and she was done. She beamed up at them.

“I’ve signed us up for GISHWHES.”

“How did you know we were-“ Dean began.

“I didn’t. But you know I would have forced you whether you wanted to or not. Are you going to let me in? It’s cold. Oh, Kevin’s also on the team.”

Dean attempted a glare at Charlie but it didn’t come off as menacing as he’d’ve liked, and Sam shooed them in. He got Charlie to add Jo and Garth to their team too.

“Is there anyone else?” Sam asked.

“I can’t think of anyone,” Charlie replied thoughtfully.

Dean remained silent, knowing he’d exhausted his list of friends already.

“Okay, all we need now is a team name,” Charlie announced. “I’m thinking ‘Justice League of America’.”

“No we should have something original,” Dean said. “Team Pie.”

“Team _Pi_ ,” Sam suggested.

“Do you have to be such a dork?” Dean asked witheringly.

“Team Hermione Granger is Boss,” Charlie piped up.

“You cannot be serious.”

“Team Snape is a Creep,” Sam said, laughing at Charlie’s angry face when Snape’s name was mentioned.

“Team Ravenclaw,” Charlie said,

“I’m not Team Ravenclaw,” Sam protested.

“Guys, can you not be such massive nerds, for just one minute,” Dean said pinching his nose in fake exasperation.

“No way. I have free will, and with this free will I proclaim our team name Ravenclaw,” Charlie smirked.

“But then you’d be infringing on _my_ free will to name our team Gryffindor.”

They bickered for a few more seconds when Dean interrupted them with three quiet words.

“Team Free Will.”

They considered it.

“I like it, it’s simple, yet meaningful,” Charlie said.

“It’s better than Team Ravenclaw,” Sam confirmed.

So that was that. Team Free Will.


	2. Chapter 2

About a week later, Dean came into the kitchen to find Sam sat at the table. The younger Winchester kicked out a chair for Dean to sit in. By the look on Sam’s face, Dean was about to get a lecture, maybe an inspirational pep talk, or possibly an attempt at a counselling session. Dean rolled his eyes, knowing he couldn’t get out of this, so he fetched two bottles of beers and sat across from his brother.

“So, are you looking forward to Gishwhes?” Sam started, easing into whatever he was going to say.

“Yeah, I suppose,” Dean said indifferently.

“You know you’re going to have to do some weird things, and you can’t back out, because you’ll have the rest of the team depending on you.” Sam had also tried for indifference.

Dean battled whether to reply with a jab about how Sam was taking it too seriously and whether Charlie had put him up to this, or to answer genuinely. But Sam had used the buzzword, ‘depend’, so called a buzzword because it buzzed around Dean’s head uncomfortably. Dependence on Dean. Like Sam had been dependent on Dean to get through the death of his mother, and the slower death of his father. That thin line of dependence had been one of the only things in Dean’s life that meant he had to keep trying. If it hadn’t been for Sam, Dean would have just been panic attacks and reclusiveness. But Sam had been depending on him.

That might explain why he had a need to never let anyone down, especially when they were depending on him. So instead of a snide remark, Dean swirled his beer around the bottle.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I won’t let anyone down.”

“I know you won’t, Dean.” Sam smiled at his older brother. “It’s going to be great for making friends too,” he continued, apparently not finished on his speech yet.

“Yeah...”

“Maybe even a boyfriend?”

“Fuck off.” So that was what Sam wanted to talk about. One of the less played songs of conversation. The most popular being, get some friends, get out the house, find your confidence, occasionally Sam would talk about Dean’s homosexuality. Sam was the only one who he’d got up the courage to tell.

“You know it’s the twenty first century Dean, people don’t mind if you’re gay.”

“Do we have to do this?”

“Dean.”Activate caring Bitch Face. God he could be persistent.

“Look, I just don’t like the idea that people would be judging me for it. It already freaks me out that people judge me on the way I look, the way I talk and stuff, let alone who I want to fuck.” Dean stood up, signalling the end of the conversation. It looked like Sam was going to continue for a second, but thankfully he gave up. Maybe the length of this conversation meant that Dean would be spared from another talk for at least a fortnight.

 

Finally, it was only a few days before the first day of GISHWHES. They’d got an email, and the names of the other group members. Before Sam and Dean could even finish reading the email, Sam got a notification on his phone saying he’d been added to the Facebook group Team Free Will loves Team God Squad.

There were two posts on the group each from Charlie, and twelve people had been invited to the group.

 

 

> >Charlie Bardbury: Hi! First of all, who’s excited for this thing!? I sure am. I think we’re all going to become very good friends over the next 7 days ;) Let’s each introduce ourselves on the comments ;)

 

And the second status was:

 

 

> >Charlie Bradbury: Please comment with your skype names, as we’ll be communicating between Facebook and Skype. Feel free to add other social media usernames too ;)

 

Dean chuckled at Charlie’s overuse of the winky face.

“You going to intro yourself?” Sam asked, him on his phone, Dean on the computer.

“Not yet, I don’t wanna seem too eager,” Dean said sitting back. They both knew he was just waiting for other people to introduce themselves so he knew what to say. Sam shrugged and did his, then went to his room to do some reading, while Dean sat back and watched as slowly, more people filled in their skype names, and introduced themselves. In the end, it took about an hour for ten out of twelve of the members to complete it.

 

 

> >>Charlie Bradbury: Hi, as you can see from my profile, I’m Charlie, 23 years old, originally from New York, now living in Sioux Falls. I am a nerd and proud, gay and proud, awesome and proud ;) I’m sooo excited for the coming week and I’m determined to get as many points as possible ;)

 

 

> >>Sam Winchester: Hi. I’m in my second year of studying Law in Sioux Falls. I enjoy reading and jogging, and I think GISHWHES is going to be awesome. Can’t wait to talk to you all :).
> 
>  
> 
> >>Samandriel Novak: hi, if u can read my actual name, then well done! if not, don’t worry, call me alfie :) i’m 18, living in pontiac illinois, i am an aspiring chef, currently working at a local restaurant. this is my second gishwhes and im sure it will be great *excited dance* x
> 
>  
> 
> >>Gabriel Novak: Yooo i am loving life in Illinois at the mo living with my bro’s. My special skill is annoying people until they cry, but don’t worry, i only do that to people that deserve it ;). Third time gisher! This year will be boss xD

 

(Dean nodded. It would be good to have these more experienced people on the team, so that they wouldn’t freak out with confusion too much.)

 

 

> >>Jo Harvelle: Sup from Sioux Falls. I work in my mom’s bar The Roadhouse, I’m a kick ass waitress and the best poker player you ever will meet. My first Gishwhes, looking forward to it guys ;D
> 
>  
> 
> >>Kevin Tran: Hey guys, I study mathematics in Sioux Falls. I love music, I can play the cello, the piano and the flute among other things. Kinda nervous about this gishwhes thing but I’m sure it will be great!
> 
>  
> 
> >>Castiel Novak: Hello, I’m Castiel. I work @ a Gas station in Pontiac. It’s very fulfilling. I’m in love w/ humanity & the world. I hope that doesn’t sound 2 pretentious. This is my 3rd time doing Gishwhes, I’m sure we’ll all become good friends. ;-)

 

(At reading this, Dean couldn’t help but scoff. The combination of the winky face and the hyphen nose was just embarrassing, in an endearing way.)

 

 

> >>Anna Milton: hi, i’m anna, 26, i live in france at the moment with my sister, but we’re originally from illinois. I’m the novak’s cousin :). i am a painter and am attending art college here, can’t wait for this week x

 

(Wow, their GISHWHES team was officially international.)

 

 

> >>Hannah Milton: hi, i am the aforementioned sister. I am studying fashion en Paris. I have a feeling we’ll be getting lots of gish points this week :))
> 
>  
> 
> >>Garth Fitzgerald: Hey y’all, I’m Garth, I work in an animal shelter in Sioux Falls:). I love animals, and people and this week will be awesome, we’ll all become friends and have sucha a good time:) I can’t wait :’)

 

That was everyone. Except Dean. And someone else. A quick check to the list on the side, he saw it was Fergus McCleod. There was no picture, but his profile said he was 37 and worked in Hell, in London. Well he seemed delightful. Dean decided it was about time to introduce himself. He typed out his thing a few times, trying not to think about what other people may think if he used this certain emoticon, or capitalised this letter or something equally meaningless. He breathed in and out a few times then pressed enter.

 

 

> >>Dean Winchester: Hi, I live with my brother Sam in Sioux Falls. I work at The Roadhouse with Jo. I like music, and fixing up things. First time Gishwheser, looking forward to it ;).

 

Ok then, that seemed ok. After Dean had added his skype name to the other post, he decided to stalk some of the people on their facebook profiles. He noticed the Novak brothers were all kinda pretty, Samandriel especially, but he was really too young for Dean’s tastes. Instead, Dean found himself gazing at Castiel’s profile picture. The first one was him smiling openly at the camera, holding a drink. He had a strong jaw line and just the right amount of stubble and his eyes- they were so clear and blue. Dean clicked to view more pictures without really thinking about it. There was one of him up a tree looking down at the camera (Dean couldn’t help but admire his figure and- yeah ok Dean was enjoying the view of his ass), one was of him and a red haired girl, one was of him kissing a dark haired guy. Dean smiled a bit at that- it was always good to have more LGBT friends. He felt it would help if he ever got up the courage to come out the closet to everyone. Dean kept clicking through the pictures until the end. One of Castiel in a waitress dress from last year’s GISHWHES (presumably), one of him kissing a pretty brunette girl, and one older one of him looking awkward in a suit and trench coat, hair tussled messily.

Finally, Dean decided to log off, feeling like a bit of a stalker for going through all of this guy’s profile pictures, but as he tried to swipe the mouse up to the corner he somehow managed to like the picture.

“Fucking please no God,” Dean whispered to himself. It was 1:39am and he’d just liked a three year old profile picture of this stranger, potential friend. Well not anymore, now he’s going to think Dean was a complete stalker freak! Dean panicked and tried to unlike it, double clicking and liking it again.

“Shit,” he could’ve punched himself in the face as he managed to like it a total of three times, eventually unliking it and getting off the page. He sat back biting his lip. He prayed to whoever was watching over him that Cas didn’t get mobile notifications, and he would never know this happened.

It seemed like he was out of luck. Two minutes later a message popped up from Castiel Novak.

 

 

> >Castiel: Seems like U loved that picture of me in the suit, liking it 3 times & all ;-).

 

Dean stared at it in horror and then frantically typed a reply, sure he was blushing.

 

>  
> 
> >Dean: I am so so sorry man, I didn’t mean to
> 
> >Dean: You probably think I’m a total creep I swear I’m not.
> 
> >Dean: I was just looking at your GISHWHES picture and...
> 
> >Castiel is typing...
> 
> >Castiel: Oh dear, don’t worry, plz. It’s happened 2 the best of us. Once I liked my ex-girlfriend’s status from 5 years prior. The most embarrassing moment of my short life.
> 
> >Castiel: Basically what I’m saying is don’t worry about it :-)

 

Dean shakily let out his breath. Castiel was sharing in Dean’s embarrassment. It was ok. Although a stranger wasn’t really the equivalent to an ex-girlfriend but oh well. Dean was relieved. He didn’t really know what to say back.

 

 

> >Dean: Haha, thanks man, I appreciate it.

 

He felt like that wasn’t enough. Unusually brashly, Dean decided to like the picture again one final time, as a joke.

A few tense seconds later he got notifications of Castiel liking all four of Dean’s profile pictures

 

 

> >Castiel: how embarrassing I seem to have liked all your profile pictures... ;-)
> 
> >Dean: haha, don’t worry, happens to the best of us ;D
> 
> >Castiel: :-)
> 
> >Castiel: Sorry, I’ve g2g, but speak tomorrow probably on Skype!
> 
> >Castiel: Bye X
> 
> >Dean: Bye :)

 

The ordeal was over. Well it wasn’t too much of an ordeal, Dean had always found it easier talking to people online than face to face, but still.

As Dean went to sleep that night, he couldn’t help but smile. GISHWHES was going to be fun, he thought decisively. He was even beginning to believe he might just make a friend or two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading so far, and thank you to the kudos and shit, it brings me happiness and motivation : )))))


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, thanks for reading so far! I feel the need to point out that Cas' character is kind of a mix of Castiel and Misha Collins a lot of the time in this so yeah just bear that in mind if he does some uncharacteristic things?? But yeah, enjoy! :)

The next evening, Charlie set up the skype call. By then the final member of their team, Fergus had introduced himself.

 

> >>I’m Fergus. 37 y/o. London. Business man. Looking forward to it.

 

Dean was sat at the computer desk while Sam loomed over his shoulder. They had to share Sam’s laptop because Dean’s webcam was broken and he hadn’t felt the need to fix it as of yet.

The group of them just generally chatted, the Novak’s telling them more about what they could expect of GISHWHES, sharing tales from the previous years. Dean let Sam do all the talking, he just observed the conversation. When he said observed he may have meant staring at Cas’ little webcam square on the screen. It was kind of dark but you could see the glow of his screen reflected on his face. Every time Cas smiled, Dean found himself forcing himself not to smile back.

He smirked as Charlie shamelessly flirted with Anna (it seemed he wasn’t the only one that had been doing some late night facebook stalking). When Anna said goodbye, Charlie embarrassingly replied:

“Goodnight, ma cheri,” and then winked.

Dean shook his head fondly at the screen. Charlie was a dork, but it seemed to work, as Anna smiled and blushed and logged off. This sparked Hannah to complain about Charlie hitting on her sister in front of her, and then Gabriel complimented Charlie on her gaydar.

Over the next half hour, more and more people left to go to sleep, including Sam. Finally it was only Cas left online, and Dean was still watching the conversation, only having said a few words over the past couple of hours.

Dean suddenly felt panicked as a silence settled. Oh God, there was no one else to make conversation but him. He hated video calls, he’d only agreed to do this because Sam had been with him, but he hadn’t had enough sense to leave when Sam left, as he’d been enjoying observing the conversation and getting to know the team mates. Now he actually had to speak- although he was considering just cancelling the video call and making some crap up about the connection.

Castiel must have noticed the panicked expression on Dean’s face though, because he started talking.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“I, uh-“ Dean didn’t know what to say. He felt so awkward talking like this, this was bad. If he got any more panicked, he wouldn’t be able to say a single word.

“Do you dislike video calls?” Castiel asked, pulling up the corner of his mouth sympathetically. Dean breathed and shook his head. The movement caught his eye, and he looked at his little video square. He looked quite scared. Dean felt a rise of self hatred at how pathetic he was.

“It is weird. It’s like talking to yourself. But I think it can be healthy to talk to yourself sometimes,” Castiel smiled secretly.

Dean tried to smile back but it turned out more of a grimace.

 

> >Castiel: We can talk like this if U prefer?

 

Dean kicked himself. Castiel was being so friendly and understanding, Dean was being such a wimp.

 

> >WinchesterS: If that’s ok... sorry, you must think I’m pathetic :/
> 
> >Castiel: No not at all, please don’t apologise. I get it, video calls used 2 make me very nervous
> 
> >WinchesterS: Really? You seem pretty cool with it now. :)
> 
> >Castiel: Yh, well, you get used 2 it :-) & I think GISHWHES really helped raise my confidence, so I could thank that.

 

The conversation carried on, to them just generally chatting about stuff. It surprised Dean how easy it was. He barely ever clicked with people like this. He might’ve actually been enjoying himself. He’d type, and laugh, and watch Cas’ face on the screen. They got onto the subject of youtube videos and Dean sent Cas this hilarious cat video. He watched as Cas’ face lit up, nose scrunched up as the cat jumped into the box, and then his full body laughter when the cat’s face came out through the hole.

 

> >Castiel: That was hilarious :-D

 

Dean smiled, then was surprised when Castiel spoke out loud.

“Why do you do that?” Cas asked.

“Do what?” Dean replied. He hadn’t even had to think about it. But somewhere along the line of their conversation tonight, Castiel had become Cas, and he’d learnt the movements of him, and he felt just comfortable enough to speak to him on the webcam. It was a minor miracle in Dean’s books.

“You smile every time I put an emoticon,” Castiel continued, suspiciously.

Dean laughed. “It’s the nose.”

“What about the nose?” Cas huffed.

“It’s,” Dean struggled to find the right word. Old, dumb, a little bit cute because it was Cas using it? “It’s lame.”

“How dare you, it’s anatomically correct,” Castiel said, mock insulted.

“Seriously.”

“Yeah, think about what people would look like without the little hyphen nose.” At this point Cas pulled the stupidest face ever, pulling his eyes down and pouted lips up so as to make his nose disappear. Dean burst out laughing.

“People do not have noses like hyphens, or they’d look like this,” Dean grabbed his nose making it thin and attempted to curve his lips upward to resemble a :-) face.

This escalated to the both of them attempting to do the ‘:S’ face, looking like freaks and making each other giggle uncontrollably. They were still pulling the faces when another person joined the conversation, connecting quick enough to see the faces. A man came onto the laptop screen, smirking.

“Hello boys.”

Dean panicked at the stranger who had seen him pulling stupid faces and was now judging him. He disconnected, then quickly typed out an excuse about the connection.

 

> >WinchesterS: Sorry, I better go now, bye Cas, bye Fergus.
> 
> >Castiel: Dean, w8

 

But Dean had already clicked on ‘appear offline’. He waited a few seconds, then

 

> >Castiel: Night Dean, it was nice talking to U X

 

Then he assumed Cas must’ve started talking to Fergus over the webcam, where Dean couldn’t see anymore. Dean shoved his hair back. He didn’t completely regret panicking and logging off so abruptly. He couldn’t have carried on the conversation with Fergus there, and he didn’t really want to disappoint Cas like that. But he was kind of annoyed that he’d had to stop talking to Cas, when he’d been enjoying himself.

He looked at the small X on the screen and smiled slightly. He was tempted to analyse the conversation they’d had, but it was after three a.m. in the morning and he decided he really should get some sleep.

As he lay in bed and his thoughts began to slow down, a memory lazily floated to the front of his head. Cas saying it was good to talk to yourself sometimes. And so the three quarters asleep Dean decided to entertain this. His first sentence to himself (in his head of course):

“You have a crush on Cas.”

“No I don’t.”

“Yes you do. I know because I’m you.”

“Fine, so what if I do.”

“You should ask him out.”

“You know I never could.”

That seemed to end the conversation. Wow, Dean was depressing, Dean thought. That was his last thought before he slipped into unconsciousness having a weird dream about meeting himself in an apocalyptic future. Cas was also there, and it seemed that Cas was high... dreams were weird.

 

*-*-*

 

It was GISHWHES eve. Most of the guys were on the group Skype chat again, chatting about how excited they were for the next day. Over the course of the conversation, Charlie had subtly asserted herself as the unofficial Captain of the team. Everyone seemed ok with that.

People began logging off quite early- from what Team God Squad had said, GISHWHES was going to be tiring and they’d need all the sleep they could get.

Dean and Cas found themselves the only ones online again. Dean felt a simultaneous thrill and panic, at the prospect of talking to Cas alone again, and at the prospect of having to try to hold up conversation again. He would be so angry if there was a long awkward silence, after having such good chemistry before.

“Er, hey again,” Dean said gruffly.

“Hey yourself. Shouldn’t you be getting some beauty sleep for the day ahead?” Cas chastised, eyes on his computer screen. Dean wouldn’t know if he was looking at Dean’s webcam square or not.

He scoffed. “You can’t talk.”

“I can talk. I am more experienced in GISHWHES than you, and I say you need some sleep.”

“I can’t sleep,” Dean leaned back, lazy smile curling his lips.

“Me neither actually. I may be kind of nocturnal.”

“Same, man. I may be half bat or something.”

“More like half... worm,” Castiel chuckled. Dean pretended to be insulted.

“If I’m half worm, you’re half- you’re half mole,” is the first animal that came to Dean’s head.

“Hm,” Cas considered this. “Moles can be kind of cute.” Cas had a cheeky grin when he wanted.

“I-I-“ Dean stuttered. Shit, were they flirting? No, why would anyone be flirting with him. Especially such a confident and attractive guy as Cas? Dean completely forgot what he was going to say. He could only think about how stupid he was, how shit he was at talking to people, how Cas could never like him like that-

“Dean?”

“I’ve- I’ve got to-“ Panicked, Dean shut off the webcam again. He hated himself so much.

 

> >WinchesterS: I’m so sorry dude, my shitty wifi...
> 
> >Castiel: No worries.

 

God, Dean hoped Cas didn’t hate him for being such a rude, lying asshole.

 

> >WinchesterS: I should probably get some sleep like you said anyway
> 
> >Castiel: Oh, ok
> 
> >WinchesterS: Speak tomorrow?

 

Cas took a whole minute to reply.

 

> >Castiel: Yh, sure. I wish you a wonderful 1st day of GISHWHES for tomorrow. Good luck
> 
> >WinchesterS: Thanks, you too. Night :)
> 
> >Castiel: Night

 

Dean clicked appear offline before slumping in his seat, looking at the writing. ‘Night’. No kiss. Dean had messed this up already. Cas thought he was a douche bag, there was no doubt. Well, it served Dean right, for being so pathetic.

Feeling suddenly worn out, Dean dragged himself to his bedroom, not smiling. He was nervously excited about GISHWHES, but also felt a familiar sinking feeling of dread, sure that he would mess something up, like he always did.

 

*-*-*

 

Luckily, the morning of the first day of GISHWHES was hectic, leaving Dean no room to mope around and feel bad for himself. There was a buzz of excitement in the air as they received the task list and looked down it. Hell, some of these were insane...

Team members started calling tasks for themselves, and discussing where they’d start. Sam called around eleven tasks, saying that Dean would do them with him.

He didn’t tell his younger brother, but Dean was feeling a queasy twisting in his stomach. Eleven tasks was a lot, and Dean had told Sam he wouldn’t let him down. But looking at the tasks now was making him nervous- he couldn’t even _imagine_ doing half of them.

Fortunately, Dean was skilled at ignoring problems till the last second possibly, so he pushed it aside and went ‘gish-shopping’ with Charlie. That may have been an ordeal if he’d’ve been on his own- they had to buy all the kale available from the nearest supermarket, plus twelve bottles of lemonade, plus sixteen pairs of socks, plus fourteen packs of women’s sanitary products, plus an array of other weird stuff in bulk. Lucky he’d just got his pay check from the Roadhouse.

The checkout could’ve gone worse. There was a red-haired teen working it, and her face got more and more disgusted the more items she scanned, muttering ‘what the shit’ under her breath every so often. Dean may have been mortified if by his side Charlie wasn’t shaking with uncontrollable giggles, which lightened his mood.

“Okay, for real, what the heck do you guys need this stuff for?” the clerk finally burst out obnoxiously, once she’d finished scanning the items. Dean definitely could not have handled this by himself.

Charlie looked round as if to make sure no one was listening, then leaned conspiratorially closer.

“We’re summoning demons,” she whispered loudly.

The girl rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like ‘fucking pagans’, then raised her voice again- “What kind of demons need ten cucumbers to summon them?”

“Oh no, that’s for him to shove up his ass,” Charlie gestured to Dean, then grinned and practically ran off with the shopping bags. Dean felt his face explosively blushing.

“I- no, she was- um,” Dean began, but he really had nothing to say after that, so he really did run away.

Charlie found it hilarious, and was crying with laughter as Dean tried to imitate the face of shock and horror that had been on the clerk’s face, outside the shop.

So the first day of GISHWHES had been successful. It had even almost taken Dean’s mind off of how he’d already fucked up things with Castiel, and how he was going to fuck up the tasks for the rest of the week. Almost.

 


	4. Chapter 4

The second day of GISHWHES, Sam had arranged for Dean to give ten strangers a bouquet of kale on the street. Dean had to do it because Sam had already completed a task the day before while he and Charlie were out shopping. But once they got out onto the street, and the first stranger came walking up, Dean felt his heart start racing. What the fuck was he doing? This lady was going to think he was a complete psychopath!

Dean tried to raise his arm to give her the bouquet but he couldn’t force himself to do it. His breathing started coming in bursts, and he stumbled back to Sam before he had a full blown panic attack.

Sam was quiet as Dean silently counted his breaths, until his chest stopped heaving sporadically. Without needing to say a word, Sam gave the phone he’d been filming on to Dean, and took the kale bouquets from him.

“It was a good try Dean,” Sam smiled, patting him on the back as he walked off to do it.

Dean knew Sam hadn’t meant that to sound sarcastic, but he couldn’t help but want to tear his fucking hair out for being so pathetic. He watched as Sam easily gave the bouquet to the first passerby, a girl who smiled and thanked him politely, then behind his back gave a bewildered look at the vegetables. Sam did it so easily.

Dean internally pep-talked himself to do a bouquet, while Sam handed them out, trying to get up the courage to do it. Every time he felt ready to swap the phone for the ever-dwindling bunch of kale, his heart did a horrible jumpy thing. Shit.

_Just do it just do it just do it just do it-_

Dean’s chanting was interrupted by Sam offering him the last bouquet hopefully.

_I can do it I can do it I can do it_

Dean took the bouquet. He waited for the next passerby. It took thirteen seconds. He forcefully beamed and gave the bouquet to the man in a business suit. The man frowned but thanked him, then continued walking.

_I DID IT I DID IT YES_

Sam beamed at him as he put away the phone. Dean felt pumped on adrenalin all the way home. He almost felt good about himself (except for the fact he’d failed on the rest of them). But Sam had assured him he didn’t mind, and that at least he’d done one.

Well maybe if Dean can hand out one bouquet of kale, he can do the rest of the tasks. Just a rocky start, Sam suggested. Dean was too buzzed even to slap Sam for smiling at him so much, as if he’d just won the Olympics.

That evening, Dean uploaded the video to the team’s YouTube account, and signed into Skype on his own laptop. The people that were online saw the video and congratulated the Winchesters, and talked about their plans for the week. Dean grimaced when he saw Cas was online, but not speaking to him.

But then, a minute later, a direct message from Castiel popped up.

 

> >Castiel: Hey, I thought U were going 2 be handing the kale out 2day?

 

Dean stared at the message, first with a flash of slight euphoria- Cas was speaking to him! Dean had been digging himself into a mental hole, thinking that Cas wouldn’t speak to him for the rest of the week and it would be awkward and horrible. But Cas was starting a conversation with him! Maybe he hadn’t completely fucked up their friendship. Then after that, a tumbling feeling of worry, because he had no idea how to explain why he didn’t do the bouquets today. He could lie, say he felt sick or something, but he didn’t really want to lie to Cas, especially as he was giving him a ‘second chance’ not to be a douche bag.

 

> >Castiel: If U don’t want to tell me, don’t worry...

 

Dean didn’t realise he’d been staring at the message for two whole minutes. Not giving himself time to think, he replied honestly.

 

> >Dean: Ah shit, this is hard to say, but... I have really bad anxiety. I’m shy and awkward and just a total loser and today I got too scared to hand out the bouquets so I had to make Sam do it :// I almost got a panic attack fuck you probably think I’m pathetic

 

Dean took a deep breath as he watched the text saying that Castiel was typing back.

 

> >Castiel: That’s not pathetic, you’re not a loser, you’re obviously a very brave person! Despite you being so nervous, U faced your fears & handed out that last bouquet!
> 
> >Dean: Ah, thanks man. I wouldn’t really use the word ‘brave’ to describe myself, but thanks anyway

 

He chewed on his lip before typing the next thing.

>  
> 
> >Dean: That’s kinda the reason I logged off so quickly the other day, I just got nervous and panicked and yeah... sorry didn’t want you to think I was a dick
> 
> >Castiel: Ohhhhh, that explains it, phew, I thought you were logging off for another reason. I’m glad we got that sorted :) X

 

Another reason? Dean and Cas had been in an almost flirty situation when he’d logged off... had Cas thought Dean was backing away from him flirting? No that’s stupid, Dean berated himself, Cas wasn’t flirting with you he was just being friendly. Fortunately, Cas’ new message distracted Dean from his uneasy thoughts.

>  >Castiel: It may surprise U, but I used 2 be really really (really) shy. Painfully shy, I could barely talk 2 anyone. But doing GISHWHES, & taking part in a few other things really helped me out. This could sound silly 2 you, but it really changed my life- over the last 3 years I’ve become a better person. It made me want to do the most with my life, because it is short, & I felt I’d wasted my whole life being shy, not talking to people, when people are amazing!
> 
> It wasn’t easy but I began smiling at strangers, learning new skills, just living life really.
> 
> It even helped me realise I was pansexual (although I find labels obsolete)
> 
> >Castiel: Sorry for the cheesiest essay EVER but I just wanted U 2 know, I understand what you’re going through, & it can get better :-)

 

Smiling at the screen. Dean was smiling at the screen! He felt like an idiot but he couldn’t help it. He thanked Cas for his kind words, and they continued with general conversation, but they were definitely closer after so much confiding. And Dean couldn’t get it out of his head that he had a chance with Cas, even if that thought gave him butterflies and a bout of self-deprecation ( _who would want to go out with you?)_.

Things were going to get better though- he would make them get better.

*-*-*

Day Three, Tuesday. Today, Dean’s task was to make a GishBot that could serve drinks to cats (‘who the fuck comes up with these ideas’ was a frequent thought in his head during the week). But before he did this, he had to go out and get some parts. While in the shop, he realised he didn’t know which motor was going to be the most suitable.

If this were any other day, he’d probably just go home and Google it, or just guess and go by trial and error, but he didn’t really have the luxury of time to do that today. So instead, he walked up to a shop assistant (after two failed attempts) and asked them for their advice. The woman greeted him with a friendly ‘Hi, I’m Isabel, how can I help you?’. It turned out Issy really knew her stuff, and found it highly amusing that Dean was trying to make a cat-serving robot. She directed him to the best motor, and gave him a few new ideas for the Bot, then wished him good luck.

This might’ve been just a normal occurrence for anyone else, but Dean hadn’t voluntarily talked to a shop assistant for... it must have been years. It was a minor, _minor_ miracle, and Dean almost felt like whistling on the way home. This Bot was going to rock.

Hours of oil, electric shocks and curses later, Team Free Will Loves Team God Squad had their picture of a GishBot serving milk to the cats in Garth’s animal shelter.

In the evening, Sam was sat at his computer with the webcam on, talking to the others, and Dean was on the couch scrolling through the tasks on his phone. There was the sound of another person joining the video call, and then a high-pitched ‘awwwwhhh!’.

Dean glanced over the couch back to see Castiel flapping his hands around over-exaggeratedly.

“Oh my god, somebody has to screenshot him doing that,” Dean laughed unthinkingly. He barely stopped himself from saying how adorable Cas looked.

“Done!” Charlie said, beaming from the little corner of the screen she had.

“Those cats are _so-o-o_ cute,” Cas said, his voice a pitch higher than his usual gravel tones.

“Garth would be squealing like that too if he was here,” Sam replied.

“Dean, did you make that robot?” Cas asked, voice back to normal.

“Yeah he did, and it doesn’t only serve milk to cats! Dean got it to do a dance!” Sam exclaimed.

“It wasn’t meant to dance, it was the only way I could get it to put the milk on the floor,” Dean grumbled from behind the couch back again.

“Get your robot, you’ve got to show us the dance,” Alfie’s voice came out of the speakers.

Dean groaned, but complied, and soon they were all watching the GishBot spinning and wiggling to music. After that, Dean stayed next to Sam to listen in on the conversation, although he pretended he was still on his phone. That was when one of the tasks caught his eye:

 

135: VIDEO: Strip a strip on the Strip (Do a striptease on The Strip in Las Vegas. Must start off dressed as a strip of bacon.) 130 points.

 

“I have a bacon strip costume!” Dean said, poking Sam in the ribs.

“What? Oh! The strip on the strip! I forgot you had that,” Sam replied, then turned to the screen and addressed Charlie.

“Can you check our schedule and see if we have an afternoon free to go to Vegas?”

Charlie got out her tablet and scrolled through it (she was maybe slightly a control freak).

“Dean has Thursday afternoon free, but you’re all booked up Sam, sorry. Why do you even have a bacon strip costume, Dean?” Charlie squinted bewilderedly.

“I was the millionth customer to the Biggersons in town,” Dean revealed proudly.

Charlie laughed.

“Um... Can anyone else make it on Thursday to Vegas then?” Dean asked. Maybe Garth or Jo were free.

“I am!” Cas exclaimed. Dean blinked. Sam and Charlie stopped what they were doing to look at Dean expectantly. The pressure was building on Dean, he could feel everyone waiting for an answer-

“Yeah, alright.” Shit. If Sam’s eyebrows could go any higher, they’d be orbiting Earth.

“Awesome.”

A bit later, Dean got a direct message from Charlie with the screenshot of Cas flapping his arms around, then a message that made his heart jump into his throat.

 

> >Queen Charlie sent an image.
> 
> >Queen Charlie: Someone’s got a cru-u-ush ;)
> 
> >Dean: What?????!??
> 
> >Queen Charlie: Oh don’t even try to pretend ;)
> 
> >Dean: Ugh
> 
> >Dean: Um... how long have you known..?
> 
> >Charlie: About Cas?
> 
> >Dean: No about me being... y’know
> 
> >Charlie: You forget I have the best gaydar in the Northern hemisphere Dean ;)
> 
> >Dean: You haven’t told anyone, have you?!
> 
> >Charlie: Of course not. It’s up to you to tell people, if you want to that is. I won’t interfere at all, I’m noy a douche bag ok? You obviously have my support for whatever you choose to do, and support from all your friends and family :)
> 
> >Dean: Thanks dude. :)

 

Charlie’s nice message took the edge off of Dean’s panic about how obviously not straight he was. But as she’d pointed out, her gaydar was on point, so maybe he didn’t have anything to worry about. He really, really hoped so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank u for reading so far xo


	5. Chapter 5

Today was the fourth day: Wednesday. Dean’s schedule had needed him to be awake at five a.m. to take a picture of Charlie running into a supermarket as soon as it opened, and acting like she’d won a massive race, but five a.m. and Dean didn’t really get along very well. Charlie spent ten minutes shoving at him to get up, but her efforts were fruitless as it just made him burrow deeper into his cocoon, so she had to wake up Sam to do it instead.

As punishment for this, Dean had to do the task that no one else had volunteered for yet: wearing underwear made of money.

“Fuck, seriously? You’re actually going to make me do that?” Dean complained, cornered by Sam and Charlie.

“It’s only fair; you said you’d be up for five a.m.” Charlie said, and then yawned, which set Sam off yawning. Or maybe they were faking it to make Dean feel guilty.

“Fine,” Dean huffed. After all, he didn’t want to let them down.

A few hours later, he wished he hadn’t agreed to this.

He looked ridiculous! He had dollars taped over a pair of Y-fronts (why he owned Y-fronts he had no idea), and when he came out of his room, red faced and grumpy, Charlie taped coins over his nipples.

“You’re not allowed to submit explicit imagery to GISHWHES,” she clarified when Dean threw his arms up in a ‘what the fuck are you doing’ manner. “So we have to put nickels on your nipples.” The statement made her and Sam have a giggling fit.

“I’m pretty sure my nipples aren’t explicit,” Dean grumbled, trying his hardest not to laugh along with the others, and to instead sustain his glaring. His complaint just made Sam and Charlie double up with giggles even more.

“Come on you guys, just take the picture so I can take get George Washington off my nuts,” Dean whined now. Sam eventually took the picture and Dean rushed back to his room to get changed.

“I can’t believe I did that,” Dean said, padding in and sitting down next to Sam who was loading the picture onto his laptop. He submitted it, and then quickly before Dean could stop him, he’d put it on the Skype group chat, sniggering at Dean’s belated grab at the mouse.

“Oh hey Dean, you look hot in this picture. If I wasn’t gay, dude,” Charlie’s comment came from the couch, where she was laid out on the couch nodding appreciatively at Dean’s almost nude.

“Thanks Charlie. I guess.”

But then more members of the group were saying how hot he was.

“This isn’t the response I wanted, gross,” Sam complained, leaving the room in disgust at the failure of his prank.

Dean grinned at the screen, enjoying the compliments but also accepting that they were all only saying it as a joke. Or so he told himself.

That was when his phone buzzed to say that Cas had direct messaged him again.

 

> >Castiel: I know every1 is saying it, but U seriously do look hot in that picture, well done
> 
> >Dean: Hahaha, sure thanks.
> 
> >Castiel: No, really U look soo hot ;)

 

“Woah,” Dean murmured to himself, momentarily forgetting Charlie was in the room. After assuring her it was nothing, he looked back at the screen, unable to type back. The possibility was dawning on Dean that Cas might actually like him in a gay way, which was amazing! Cas was a great guy, and obviously, painfully attractive. If Dean had thought no more, just typed away on his positive emotions, he’d flirt back, and maybe by the time they meet in Vegas, they could hook up. But of course, Dean over thinks everything. Plus, holy shit, Vegas was tomorrow. He’d be meeting Castiel tomorrow!

So what if Cas was joking, being friendly. If Dean flirted back, then Cas would have to tell him that he isn’t interested in Dean in that way. It would be terrible and awkward, and it would spoil their time in Vegas the next day, everything would go to shit.

And really, logically, why would Cas be interested in Dean? He can’t even hand ten bouquets of kale out to the public. Cas has probably got a long term partner, and he’s better off with them than he is with Dean. Everyone is better off without Dean: it would be a constant stress and burden to anyone in a relationship with Dean, just like he’s a burden to Sam. If he’s having a bad day, he’ll refuse to leave the house, plus he has panic attacks regularly, plus he struggles to talk to cashiers. What a fucking catch.

And finally, the final strand of the toxic web that was Dean’s self hatred was a memory from high school. He asked jock Benny Lafitte out. Dean had been so nervous, obviously, and it was so out of character for him to voluntarily speak to someone, let alone be brave enough to ask someone out, but it was the kind of thing a teenage boy would do for love. It broke him when Benny said no. He’d said it kindly enough, but the rejection and the embarrassment was too much for Dean. He skipped a month of school after that, feeling that everyone thought he was a freak and a fool. Only after Sam had begged him to come back to school did he, and by then most people had forgotten.

It was a traumatic time for teenaged Dean, and a horrible, discouraging memory for adult Dean.

 

>                 >Castiel: Dean? I’m sorry if that’s inappropriate

 

And with that, Dean lost the last of his courage.

 

>                 >Dean: That’s alright

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading so far, the kudos and the comments are super duper duper appreciated :))  
> was i high while writing 'nickels on your nipples'? who knows


	6. Chapter 6

Dean was listening to Blue Öyster Cult at top volume on his way to Las Vegas, drumming the steering wheel in time. This gave the appearance of a calm, laid back person: he thought maybe if he _looked_ relaxed enough, that maybe he’d actually start _feeling_ relaxed. It was not working. He was the complete opposite of laid back. He was terrified of spending half a day with a practical stranger, having to make conversation with him for all of that time, and without messing it up and making him hate him. But at the same time he was exuberant at the fact that he was going to Vegas to meet Castiel. This was a break through for Dean, he didn’t think he would’ve even considered making this trip a couple of weeks ago, and now he was three quarters of the way, not thinking about turning around. Much.

At a couple of stop signs, his chest constricted with fear, and he contemplated just turning the car around to avoid the massive catastrophe that was to be Dean hanging out with Cas, but those moments only lasted for a couple of seconds, so it was endurable.

Eventually, he slowly rolled into the car park of the hotel they were going to be staying at. They had booked a single room for the night in the Flamingo, a hotel on the Strip, so that they could leave their bags there and get changed there, and just a back up if something went very wrong.

Dean leaned up against the car with his sunglasses on, awaiting Castiel’s arrival. He was a few minutes early, but it didn’t take long before he heard a familiar voice deep calling his name. He looked up to see Cas waving his arms, dressed in a white t shirt and brightly patterned shorts. Dean took a deep breath, and went to greet Cas.

“Hey Dean,” Castiel beamed. He seemed like he wanted to go in for a hug, but decided not to at the last second.

“What’s up man,” Dean replied smiling slightly bashfully at Cas.

“How was your journey?”

They walked and talked easily to the hotel desk, and then up to their room, dumping all the bags. Dean felt a rush of happiness at how natural it felt to be talking to Cas, and how friendly Cas was being, despite how much Dean might’ve fucked up yesterday, either by rejecting him or just not taking a joke very well. Either way, Dean fucked up- yet Cas was still being so nice, and they were getting along great. Cas was telling him all about one of his misadventures the previous year for Gishwhes, when he looked at the time.

“I think it’s time for me to get changed. Do you have the costume?”

“Of course,” Dean said, unzipping a bag and ceremoniously revealing his prize.

“Wow. It’s actually a strip of bacon,” Cas almost sounded fazed, as he appraised the goofy, oversized suit. “Ahem. Are you sure you don’t want to do it?”

Dean looked at Cas in horror.

“Joking,” Cas winked. “I have one final touch for this strip tease, check this out,” Cas said, leaning forward and tugging down his shorts.

Dean’s initial look of shock quickly creased up into laughter. Cas was wearing a pair of briefs with a bacon print on them.

“That’s great.”

Cas beamed at Dean, Dean smiling back and there was a beat of silence and staring and smiling until Dean leapt out of his seat. “I guess I’ll leave so you can get changed.”

“Alright, but it’s nothing you won’t see later when you’re filming.”

Dean gulped as he went and shut the door, standing outside. This was going to be testing.

A few minutes later, Castiel stepped out the room, and locked the door behind him. He was trying to look embarrassed, but Dean could tell that he was enjoying this far too much.

Dean spluttered with laughter, which rewarded him with a mock glare from Cas.

“Shut up, I look hot, admit it.”

Dean just shook his head, still smiling, and they walked together to the lifts, but in his head he couldn’t help but thought-reply: you look so tasty I could eat you up. Cas’ muscular arms were on show and Dean wanted to know how they’d feel around his waist, on his ass, holding him up against a wall while- no. He wasn’t going to go down this route. He wouldn’t ever find out how that felt, because Cas didn’t like him like that.

The two of them walked past reception, Cas tipping his head formally to the receptionist who stared back at him in bewilderment. The sun was just going down, and they decided to walk until they reached one of the pedestrian bridges crossing the Strip, so as to get a clearer view of the Strip on camera. Some tourist-types were taking photos of Cas, and he tried to grin at every single camera, and then some teenagers walked past, each wanting a high five from the bacon man. Dean laughed in wonder at how easily Cas was taking this attention, he wasn’t even embarrassed.

Finally, they found the perfect location for their shoot: the centre of a bridge, next to a busker. Dean turned his phone’s camera on, and Cas asked the busker to play something sensual.

This was it.

Dean pressed the record button as the last of the daylight disappeared and Cas started swaying his ass to the music, turning round and looking at the camera over his shoulder. Jesus, Dean was not going to be able to survive this.

Cas started slowly unzipping his costume, at which point a group of hen-party goers saw him, and crowded round to watch the show, giggling already. By the time Cas had stripped down just to his bacon underpants (to the high-pitched woops of some), an actual crowd had gathered round to watch. Cas sidled up to a few of the women flirtily, and they actually started putting dollars into the waistband of his underpants. Dean couldn’t believe what he was watching. He also had to try to think unsexy thoughts as Cas swayed and gyrated past the camera. This would be the worst time ever to get a hard-on.

The crowd started chanting ‘take it off’ to the apparent delight of Cas, who finally, grinning, to end his show, mooned the camera. The crowd cheered, and Dean and Cas were laughing too much to notice that a cop had walked unto this (probably not legal) strip show.

“Hey!” The cop shouted, moving in towards Cas, who’s ass was still on show.

Cas reacted quickly, eyes wide, but grin even wider as he dodged the cop, gave the money he’d collected to the busker, then grabbed Dean’s hand and began sprinting, still wearing only his underpants.

Dean pocketed his phone, and just went with it, falling into the moment without thinking. The police man began chasing them down the bridge(to the distant booing of Cas' audience), weaving in between passers by. Dean was exhilarated- an almost naked Cas grabbing his hand, a few whistles as the two of them shot past people, and the adrenalin of being chased by the law was making his heart thump erratically. It felt good. They dodged into Caesars Palace, and swerved in between the betting machines. By now, they had quite a lead on the cop, and Cas had time to stop behind someone and appeal to borrow their coat.

“I just won ten thousand dollars, of course you can borrow my coat, you can borrow my damned car  _and_  wife if you want,” the elderly man beamed at Cas. Cas assured him that wouldn’t be necessary, and thanked and congratulated the stranger as he passed him a long tan trench coat.

“Let’s go.” Dean and Cas jogged out, and decided that they’d finally lost the police officer.

They stopped to catch their breath by the road, and Dean had the sudden, strong urge to hold Cas and never let go. He settled with just hugging him tightly. He never hugged people- he was too awkward, but it just felt right tonight. Cas hugged him back, holding onto Dean a few more moments than necessary, and then stepped back.

Something immediately caught Cas’ attention.

“Isn’t there a task of doing shots with Hello Kitty?” Cas asked, gesturing across the road, where sure enough, there was a person dressed up as Hello Kitty.

Dean nodded incredulously.

“You go get the shots, I’ll go talk to them.”

Six Purple Nurples later, Dean and Cas were staggering back to their hotel, supporting each other drunkenly.

“Shit I was sposed to be driving home tonight,” Dean said, fumbling the key into their door.

“S’lucky we booked the noom for the right then,” Cas replied. He paused and mentally went over what he'd just said, then collapsed with laughter.

It took them a good few minutes for either of them to actually get into their room, and when they did, they both slumped onto the floor by the bed, exhausted. It had been a long day of driving, and stripping, and running, and drinking, and they couldn't be bothered to stand up. They calmed down and talked for a bit about their plans for the next day, until Dean realised that Cas was still wearing the ridiculous trench coat over his bacon underpants and started giggling at the fact.

For a second, Castiel was confused, but realisation dawned on him when Dean grabbed the flap of the trench coat, like he couldn’t believe it was there.

In the next second, they went from laughing to kissing feverishly. Dean didn't know who had started it, but he did know he didn’t want to stop it, and seemingly, neither did Cas. He clambered onto Dean, who was sat with his back against the bed, and began grinding down into Dean’s lap. Dean held Cas closer, writhing against him, relishing his feel, his warmth. Cas’ hands began exploring up underneath Dean’s shirt as they continued kissing, and Dean felt like he may be in heaven. Just as Dean felt Cas’ hard on, hot against his own, Cas pulled back.

“I think I’m gunna-“ Cas dashed off to the bathroom, followed by the sound of puking.

Dean may have been grossed out, but he was too busy being blissed out. He was even ready for make out session round two after Cas had finished throwing up, but apparently the Purple Nurples had been too much even for Dean. Within the next few minutes, he passed into unconsciousness.

 

*-*-*

 

Dean woke up in bed with a throbbing hangover, and Cas’ foot by his head. Bleary eyed, he checked his phone for the time, and realised he’d missed three calls from Sam and two from Charlie. He stumbled into the bathroom, making sure not to disturb the still-sleeping Castiel, and called up Sam.

“Are you alright?” Dean asked immediately.

“I was about to ask you the same question,” Sam’s voice came through, sounding half amused, half annoyed. Dean could easily picture the bitch face that must have been adorning his little brother’s face at the time.

“Yeah, I’m fine. We had a few drinks last night so I couldn’t drive home, sorry,” Dean grumbled, feeling his face heating up at the memory of last night.

“You don’t have to apologise Dean,” his brother said, his voice soft. Damn it, he was probably all proud and shit that Dean had made a friend. “Anyway, I need to borrow the impala, so come back some time today, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be back in a couple hours. Later.”

Dean pocketed his phone and looked in the mirror. Deep shadows under his eyes and too much stubble. He wanted to have a shower and get cleaned up, but he couldn’t because he heard Castiel stirring. Shit. They kissed last night.

This realisation made Dean’s stomach drop and his breath halt. No no no no. What had he been thinking? Not much, apparently! What if Cas had only kissed him because he’d been hammered? He knows Dean is gay now. Dean was so embarrassed, this was so bad. Cas probably hates him, and the fact that Dean had really really liked kissing him made everything worse. He really truly had fucked up the friendship now.

Dean rushed out the bathroom and started packing his things, not looking at Cas who was spread out on the bed, stretching temptingly.

“Morning,” Cas said, a smile in his voice. Dean didn’t trust the smile. Cas was just being nice to Dean, because he’s a good person. He probably pitied Dean. Or maybe he didn’t even remember the previous night. Despite the sorrow that went through Dean at the thought, it may have been for the best.

“Dean?” Cas asked, with a worried inflection.

“Mm?” Dean was playing it as cool as he could. He didn’t want his voice to catch in his throat. He was mortified enough. “Sam needs to borrow the Impala so I’ve got to head back.”

“Oh, ok.” There was a beat of awkward silence, the first awkwardness between them so far. That was bad, Dean had made it awkward between them. The easiest friendship he’d formed, and he managed to sabotage it. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” Dean finished packing his bags. He hated himself. He was being so blunt, but he didn’t know how else to act. He didn’t trust himself to be friendly to Cas, he might end up trying to kiss him again. He couldn’t think straight. He needed to leave. He opened the door, and chanced a glance round at Cas one last time. Cas was standing up, still wearing his bacon pants, which made Dean smile before he could stop himself.

“So, last night was fun.” The words fell out Cas’ mouth quickly.

Dean ducked his head. “See you later, Cas.”

And with that, he shut the door. Using the last of his self restraint, he refrained from banging his head a million times on said door. He had possibly just made worse the worst situation ever. Dean Winchester could not be trusted with friends, and definitely could not be trusted with romantic interests.

 


	7. Chapter 7

Driving was when Dean could think the clearest, which was why it was terrifying that even when driving through the deserts of Nevada, he still couldn’t think about what had just happened. It took him a whole album of Kansas before he could even begin to mentally sift through it.

  1. Dean had embarrassed himself by kissing Castiel last night, effectively alienating their friendship.
  2. Dean may have fallen a bit in love with Castiel last night, but Castiel would never fall for a flea like Dean.
  3. This morning, Dean had been rude to Castiel and then left him, the final fuck up.



He hadn’t even offered him a coffee. Fuck.

There was nothing to do now, he’d had it. Maybe if he was someone other than Dean Winchester, he could fix this, but he wasn’t. He was horribly shy and awkward, and it was better just to not. The sooner GISHWHES was over, the sooner he could forget Castiel, and become the hermit he was destined to be. He just wasn’t made to deal with people.

But that meant never seeing Castiel again...

That was Dean’s third ever kiss. He’d kissed one girl when he was much younger, at a school disco(if you can really count that). Then a couple years later, Dean had kissed his friend Harry when Harry had been drunk. Harry had claimed he didn’t remember anything, but never really acted the same around Dean again. He'd lost one of his rare friends, and had beaten himself up over it for years.

But now was not a time to be moping about Harry. This was much worse.

Just then, his phone rang. It was Cas. Dean knew why he was calling: to tell him not to get all clingy over him, ‘it was just a one night stand’, or maybe even ‘don’t tell my girlfriend’. Well, Dean really did not need that right now, so he just let it ring. Five missed calls later, Cas seemed to get the message.

The day was Friday. Dean had a couple of tasks to help Garth with.

Then there would be only two days left of GISHWHES.

Once home, Dean did his best not to think about Cas. He told Sam about the strip tease in Vegas, the police chase, and even the Hello Kitty shots, but nothing else. He helped Garth with his tasks. Garth's constant high spirits disguised Dean's lack of. In the evening, emotionally and physically worn out, he had one last thing to do before he conked out- upload the day's pictures and videos. Without thinking, Dean logged onto Skype while uploading. Charlie and Anna were online, discussing the Saw movies.

To Dean’s slight horror, he received a direct message from Cas. 

> >Castiel: Listen 2 me, U might not need 2 talk about it but I do- I had a really good time last night, and I’m pretty sure U did 2. The world’s harsh and no1 should throw away good things, and I think what we have could B a good thing. Just tell me if I’m wrong, I’ll back off str8 away, but I think I’m right about this Dean.

Castiel was still typing more. It didn’t give Dean much time to think, the dots of the ellipse like a countdown. Castiel was giving him one more chance, Dean could hardly believe it, after messing up, one, two, three times, Cas still wanted to talk to him. Heck, he wanted to do more than talk- even someone as deep in denial as Dean could realise that Caslike liked him. It was a miracle, and Dean would not let himself mess up again: he had learnt his lesson today, of how shit he felt rejecting Cas’ friendship and flirtations over and over again. He didn’t know why, but Cas liked him, and he wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip away, like he had so many other times in his life. So basically, yolo. 

> >Dean: I had a good time last night too x

A kiss. Dean was feeling brave. Or maybe just high on disbelief and euphoria.Cas stopped typing for a heart-juddering two seconds, and then started typing something else.

> >Castiel: Thank goodness! Then how come U were acting so weird this morning??
> 
> >Dean: Because I’m an ass hole douche bag :( I thought that you’d only kissed me coz you were drunk, and I was scared you would hate me and shit....
> 
> >Castiel: Ur dumb

> >Dean: Don’t I know it 

Dean could feel the relief like physical weights coming off his shoulders. Cas liked him, Cas didn’t hate him, Cas liked him. The notion that things were going well for Dean was so bizarre. He was grinning at the screen, he knew it. Which sparked the courageous idea:

> >Dean: Wanna video call?

And that’s how Dean ended up talking and laughing and flirting with Cas until 4am. It was amazing, and Sam was so happy that Dean was happy, he didn’t even complain about the noise. Dean was so happy that he hadn’t fucked things up with Cas that he didn’t even smack Sam round the head for being such a dork.

*-*-*

An hour after Dean had finally got to sleep, two hours after Sam had, the Winchesters were woken up by an insistent banging on the door.

“Charlie?” Sam asked groggily, opening the door. The accused stormed into the room, putting her laptop on the table. She realised Sam was still stood blinking at the door, so she went back and marched him to the table, then fetched Sleeping Beauty #2.

She made coffee, banging around the mugs angrily while she waited for Dean and Sam to read the email that was open on her laptop.

It was an email from the GISHBOT. It said that their team had uploaded duplicate photos to another team, which was against the rules, and they therefore would be disqualified, unless one of the teams owned up to cheating. Then, the said team would be disqualified, and that would be all. It then gave the name of the other team, and the members.

“Well shit,” Dean said.

“Well shit? That’s all you have to say!? We have to sort this out, right now or-“

“It’s half four in the morning Charlie, what do you expect?” Sam grumbled.

Charlie huffed and took the laptop off the table, replacing it with two full cups of coffee. She stalked over to the couch and started typing.

“What are you even doing up at half four?” Dean asked.

“I was up talking to Anna, she has a kooky French time zone.”

Sam raised his eyebrows at Dean, causing Dean's cheeks to colour up and crease into a bashful grin. Dean and Cas didn't even have the excuse of different time zones. Luckily, Charlie didn’t see the brothers' exchange because she was engrossed with her laptop, so she couldn’t question Dean on it.

“I’ve found them on facebook,” Charlie announced. “Alistair, Ruby, Lilith, Crowley... they don’t seem like a very nice lot of people. They’re all wearing black...” Charlie trailed off, as she started typing again.

“Just ‘cause they wear black doesn’t mean they’re bad people,” Sam pointed out diplomatically.

“I’m skyping the Ruby chick, come back me up guys,” Charlie piped up, moving the laptop to a better position for Sam to come sit next to her. Dean watched warily from the side.

A pretty, brunette girl appeared on screen after a few moments, in a black pyjama tee.

“This better be good,” she drawled, glaring through her webcam.

“She’s kind of hot,” Charlie side whispered to Sam.

“She’s kind of beautiful,” Sam whispered back, slightly slack jawed.

Dean gave them both a shove- they had stuff to be doing, and they were both just sat drawling at the screen.

“Oh, right. You stole our photo!”

“Oh, God.” Ruby rolled her eyes.

“Email GISHWHES and tell them you cheated,” Charlie tried to menace.

“Or what?”

“So you don’t deny it?” Sam said, finally slipping into lawyer mode, albeit only-two-hours-of-sleep lawyer mode.

“No. We took that picture fair and square,” Ruby protested, then added sneakily, “We just didn’t organise it.”

Charlie gasped in realisation. “You took pictures of the children dressed up as Halloween monsters picking up litter at the park that Kevin arranged!”

The corner of Ruby's mouth lifted up into a smirk. Dean watched as Charlie hesitated, she looked like she was quickly formulating a plan in her head.

“Ok, fine. Well, there’s no point in us both being disqualified. Let’s say we settle this in GISHWHES spirit.”

“What do you suggest?” For the first time, Ruby didn’t look bored out of her skull.

“Litter picking competition. Whoever picks up the most pieces of litter wins, and the losing team will own up to cheating and get disqualified.”

Amazingly, Ruby agreed to it, and they sorted out the time and place.

Sam tried to ask Charlie what she was planning, but she was already on her phone and out the door.

This is why, in the afternoon of the penultimate day of GISHWHES, Dean, Charlie, Cas and Samandriel were assembled at a beach, armed with litter pickers, facing off to Ruby, Alistair, Lillith and Meg. Sam and a few other members of Team Free Will loves Team God Squad had wanted to come, but couldn’t fit it into their schedules, seeing how short notice it was.

GISHWHES could be so bizarre.

Cas and Samandriel had been the last to arrive, having been the ones with the longest journey, and just as Cas was walking towards Dean with a smile that made the Winchester's tummy flip, Charlie began to address the teams.

"Ok, so even though we all know that it was Team...666. Seriously guys, with the hell and the Satan stuff? Anyway, even though we all know it was you guys that cheated-"

"Ha! Screw you," Meg had interrupted.

"Tempting, but nah," Charlie effectively put down the heckle. Luckily Meg found this response funny, and raised an eyebrow suggestively. Charlie eyed her half-worried, then continued. "Anyway. We're doing a litter picking competition, to sort out who will get disqualified. Everyone got their rubber gloves?"

Several marigold fists raised.

"Ok. Ready. Set. Go!"

Dean hup to it, sharing a tentative smile with Cas before setting to the task. In the car journey there, Charlie had lectured him (and the Novak's on the phone) enough that they knew they didn't have time to talk now. Charlie had been pleasantly surprised that Dean had agreed to come on this journey, to spend time with five strangers. But she'd been forgetting Dean's weird inner-contradiction concerning loyalty. Dean was horribly shy, on bad days he couldn't ask a shop worker for assistance or say thanks to a person holding a door open for him, but when it came to defending his friends, his fierce loyalty completely took over. This was him defending all his friends at once, and it didn't leave much time for him to get anxious over the strangers. There was also the fact that the best thing ever had happened to him the night before. He had elected not to tell Charlie about it, for reasons he couldn't name yet, but even then the joy was pretty hard to dampen.

Even now, while he was picking up litter and had time to think (as long as it didn't slow his movement), he didn't feel anxious about coming out here. Technically. There was one thing that was bringing up a knot in Dean's throat though.

When Cas had been walking towards him just then, had that been to hug him? He supposed that was ok- no one would've batted an eyelid aside from Charlie, because only Charlie knew how rare a Dean Winchester hug was, especially for new friends. But even then, that wasn't that bad.

But what if Cas had been walking towards him to kiss him? All those strangers would know about Dean, know that he liked guys and their dicks and would probably start assuming that Dean loved to wear glitter eyeliner and paint his nails and- he only half realised he was being ridiculous. But he hadn't even thought about coming out of the closet with Cas yet. He had never seriously considered letting the world know he was gay. It was the fact that people would be assuming things about him, it was too much for Dean's anxieties.

'You have got to be shitting me,' Dean thought to himself, 'I am having a gay crisis'. Coming out of the closet had never really mattered before: the only person he was hurting was himself and that really did not matter much to Dean, but now Cas was in the equation. What if he thought that Dean was ashamed to be seen with him? It was very important what he chose to do today, especially because after the infinite amount of times he'd already fucked things up with Cas, he couldn't afford one more thing to go wrong. If Cas tried to kiss him and Dean refused, it would be a disaster- Cas would never want to talk to him again, Dean was sure. He couldn't let Cas go this time.

He crushed the discarded beer can in his hand that he'd just picked up, just as the ten minute alarm went off. It was time to see what team had won.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it's taken so long to do this, thank you for reading so far :) it's nearing the end now, there's maybe 2 chapters leftish. thank you for comments and kudos and stuff!!


	8. Chapter 8

Charlie bit her freshly sanitised nails as Ruby finished counting.

Turning to her team, Ruby shrugged with an unimpressed look. "They won by nine pieces."

Charlie beamed at the woops and clapping from Dean, Samandriel and Cas.

This was it, Dean thought, as Cas turned to him and smiled. The other team were watching them grimly. Dean steeled himself up, as he had been for the past two minutes, blood pumping in his ears: he was going to kiss Cas. He wanted to kiss Cas. This was going to be life-changing- everyone would know. Dean could almost hear the gasps of shock already as he leaned forward and pecked Cas on the lips.

It was meant to be more than a peck, but Cas had already been turning back round when Dean did it, so it was a kind of awkward clash of Dean's lips with the corner of Cas' mouth.

For a second Cas' smile widened, but then the smile disappeared completely and he turned away from Dean, to the other team. For a heart-stopping moment Dean thought he had done something really wrong. Cas hadn't wanted to kiss him! But before Dean could follow that downward spiral of thought, he realised what had caused Cas' frown.

Surprisingly, the world had continued when Dean had kissed Cas. No one had reacted, at all, even though he was pretty sure they'd all seen. In fact, Charlie and Samandriel looked as if they'd been expecting it anyway, so they had barely even reacted. And the other team had reacted even less. The thing that had made Cas turn was the fact that Meg was addressing Charlie again.

"Yeah, well it doesn't matter anyway. We're not admitting we cheated to GISHWHES. We only agreed to this for the chance that you guys would back down. We'll settle with bringing you down with us," she sneered.

Charlie glowered.

"Oh come on Red, you're not really surprised are you?"

But it was Meg that got the surprise, as Charlie started sniggering.

"No, I've had to deal with people like you all my life. This has been a distraction technique. My computer whizz friend Kevin Tran, who you stole the picture from, has spent the past hour hacking into your computer to email a confession to Gishwhes. Boom!" Charlie grinned, then checked her phone as it buzzed.

"And oh, we now know that Fergus, or as you call him, 'Crowley'," Charlie air quoted with one hand, "is a double agent and he's been banned from Gishwhes, while we get extra points as compensation. Haters gon' hate, bitches." Charlie backed up, with a shit-eating grin on her face. Something about illegal hacking just made her feel amazing.

 

"So, that's that," Castiel stated after a minute, still slightly reeling from what had just happened. The losing team had skulked off by now, and Charlie had only just stopped grinning.

"You're kind of amazing," Samadriel spoke. And there was Charlie's grin back again.

"Thanks, Samanama- Alfie." She checked her phone again. "Dean, we got ten minutes until we've got to head back, Sam needs me for task number 55. Take a walk with me Alfie," she ordered, winking at Dean who was now left with Cas.

Dean smiled disbelievingly as the red-head waltzed away, or as best as you could waltz on pebbles and sand. He didn't know how he had found such an amazing friend. He turned to look down at Cas who had sauntered to Dean's side.

"I suppose we should take a walk too."

The walk only lasted one minute, because as soon as they were out of sight of Cas' brother, Cas kissed Dean on the lips. He had to get on his tiptoes due to him being on the downward slope plus the inch Dean had on him, and it made Dean smirk into the kiss. The Winchester wound his arms round Cas' ass, bringing him closer and supporting him.

When they broke free of the embrace, they remained like that, arms tangled into a hug.

"I've got to say, I'm kind of surprised you didn't mind kissing me in front of people," Cas breathed.

"Me too," came the simple reply.

"This is romantic."

"Not when you realise we both kind of stink of sweat, the sea and trash," Dean said. Smooth! But what did he expect, this was Dean's first ever date in his life, plus he couldn't help but act himself around Cas, full-on dork Dean.

"Nice."

Just then, Charlie's distant call disturbed them. "Winchester! Time to go!"

Dean groaned then, making Cas raise his eyebrows.

"Sorry man, I guess I'll Skype you tonight."

"Yeah," Cas paused, looking like he wanted to say something more. Dean waited. He waited for about ten seconds, of Cas deciding how to put what he was about to say. This was going to be big. "How do you feel about... Skype sex?"

Dean's mouth dropped open, just as Charlie called for him again.

"Uhhh," Dean hesitated, mostly due to surprise. Thinking about it, there was nothing at all to hesitate about. "Hell yeah."

They shared one more quick kiss before Dean literally skipped off to join Charlie.

Two of the greatest nights ever in a row. Dean was in heaven.

 

The morning after, the final day of GISHWHES, Dean was sat alone at the table nursing a mug of coffee. He was lucky he was alone, because every few minutes he’d realise he was grinning. He couldn’t help it. He’d thought skype sex would be the most awkward thing in the world, seeing as everything else Dean did usually ended up awkward, but it had just worked.

As he stopped himself grinning for the sixth time, there was a knock at the door. He got up, dressing gown swishing and answered it to find Charlie and Sam there, who’d just been out to do some super-last minute shopping.

“Morning,” he greeted them, letting them through.

“Did you even check through the peephole that time?” Sam asked, dropping the bag on the sofa. He was referring to Dean’s habit of meticulously checking through the peephole every time there was a knock at the door, because he really didn’t fancy talking to cold callers, religious people or even postal workers.

Dean stopped in thought for a second, before shrugging and continuing. “Nah. Guess I’m just tired.” But it wasn’t that. He just hadn’t thought about it. And now that he did think about it, answering the door to the postman didn’t seem that bad. Answering the door to someone trying to sell him something sounded slightly daunting, but just take the post, smile and close the door didn’t seem too scary at that moment. This wasn’t a breakthrough- he was just on a high, Dean assured himself. But Sam had promised him that GISHWHES would get his confidence up. He couldn’t help but wonder how long this confidence high would last.

“Today, we’re giving presents to everyone that helped us over the week,” Charlie stated, plucking Dean from his thoughts. As she said this, she unveiled the bag she was holding, which was filled with small boxes of chocolates.

“I didn’t see that task on the list?” Sam questioned.

“It’s not, but I thought it would be neat on our compilation video.” Charlie grinned proudly.

So the three of them set off. Sam delivered a few boxes of happiness to college friends he’d asked for help from. Charlie gave one to each member of the team, as a ‘thanks for not beating me up when I ordered you all about’. They all had people in the Roadhouse to thank, for the flashmob they arranged the previous Tuesday. And Dean had a few people himself.

One was to the shop assistant in the electronics store that helped him find the right pieces for the GISHBOT. He remembered her, because talking to her had seemed such a big feat back then. He went in, with Sam as back up and searched for the brunette. Luckily, she was on duty and restocking a shelf. Dean handed the bewildered girl the box of chocolates, maybe blushing slightly, and started walking away.

“Hey wait, I remember you!” she said belatedly. “You were building that robot, right? How’d that go?”

Dean scratched the back of his head bashfully and said that it went ok. That’s when Sam butt in, and told her how awesome it was. Stupid, proud little brothers.

Once they were out, they only had one box yet.

“Can we eat it?” Dean asked Charlie hopefully. The girl looked thoughtful for a second then smiled.

“Nope. I know who can have this one. Remember that shop clerk… the one I terrorised with images of you and ten cucumbers up your ass?”

Dean cringed as Charlie started giggling at the memory and Sam just gazed at them in bewilderment.

The three of them found the girl, at the same checkout as before. Just because Charlie was a little shit, this time they put five pineapples on the checkout.

The girl first looked at the pineapples then looked at the three grinning faces, horror dawning on her face.

She gingerly put the pineapples through the till, and charged them, then because she really could not contain herself, as Charlie had suspected, spoke up in a slightly disgusted tone.

“What do you need with five pineapples?”

This time, Sam looked at her, lecherously raising his eyebrows, causing Dean and Charlie to burst into laughter.

The girl looked away frowning, wondering whether to believe it or not. By the time she looked back, the three of them were walking away with their pineapples, the tall one walking very weirdly, like he’d shit himself. There was also a small box of chocolates left next to the till, with a ‘thank you’ written on it and a pentagram.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading this far, it is appreciated :) sorry this has been taking so long again, AND SEE YOU NEXT WEEK FOR THE FINAL CHAPTER


	9. Chapter 9

Dean get in here!” Charlie called from the living room. The aforementioned man was in his work room, back to working on his high tech recliner. He’d finished the left speaker and was just starting the right when Charlie’s urgent yelling reached him.

Dusting off his hands (even though he didn’t have anything on them- it was just something you had to do to show you’ve been building shit), he sauntered into the sitting room, where Charlie was looking way too comfortable on their sofa.

“Why are you still here Charlie, I get why you practically lived here during GISHWHES, but it’s been three days since that ended.”

“Because I’m a delight to be around.”

Dean shrugged in general agreement. He didn’t really mind having her round, he just had to keep up his grumpy façade. As he shrugged, his phone vibrated a few times. He checked it- two facebook message notifications from Gabriel, and a text message from Jo.

 

>Gabriel: dude

>Gabriel: check your emails

 

>Jo :)

>HAVE YOU SEEN THE EMAIL!

 

When Dean looked up, Charlie was holding her laptop screen towards him. He saw it was a GISHWHES email, and for a minute his heart leapt into his throat- had they won? But the thought was quickly extinguished when he realised it was just a general update message.

As his eyes scanned downwards, his heart did the leapy thing again.

At the end of the email, there was a picture, like there’s a GISHWHESian picture at the end of all the emails. This picture was of a man wearing Y-fronts made of dollar bills, with nickels on his nipples.

It was Dean Winchester,

“No-o! Why that picture? Why couldn’t it be the one with Sam dressed as a moose, come on,” Dean protested.

“It’s a good thing Dean,” Charlie smiled, seemingly finding Dean’s stress amusing.

Dean huffed in response, but was secretly pleased. He was mortified to have that picture sent to thousands and thousands of people’s email inboxes, but also it did show off his muscles. It was quite cool really.

A few hours later, a conversation started in the team’s Skype chat group.

 

>Gabeeeeeee: Attention please

>Gabeeeeeee: In celebration of Dean-o’s photo getting on the GISHWHES update email, repping us up, and in proper celebration of the cool things we all did, I am holding an exclusive Team Free Will Loves Team God Squad partayyy at my digs next weekend. SEE YOU ALL THERE xD.

>Queen Charlie: I think I speak for the whole Team Free Will in saying we’ll be there! ;)

>Queen Charlie:  Quick question, will the Europeans be making it?

>Gabeeeeeee: ugh, yes my dearest cousins will be there, but I don’t want to be scarred by seeing you 2 kanoodling pls

>Gabeeeeeee: actually that goes to Cas and Dean too, pls no scarring

>Castiel: ;)

>Gabeeeeeee: think of the children Cas, by which i mean our baby brother

>Samandriel: …

>Jo Freakin’ Harvelle: Who’d’ve thought GISHWHES would be so romantic.

 

*-*-*

 

“Hey guys! Wow, it’s so weird seeing you in real life and not all laggy like your webcams- come in, everyone else is already here,” Gabriel greeted enthusiastically, a pink sassy looking cocktail already in hand.

Team Free Will filed in, drowning in the loud music once Gabriel shut the door behind them.

“God, I thought this was going to be more like a dinner party or something,” Sam said, trying to hide the bottle of wine he’d brought with him.

“What?” Gabriel asked, laughing.

“Nothing!”

Once they got settled in, and got used to the fact that this was like a party-party, they started mixing. And dancing. And drinking. Charlie had made a beeline for Anna and now her, Anna and Gabriel were all laughing hard about something in the corner.

Similarly, Sam had made a beeline for Cas, dragging Dean with him so that he could make proper introductions, and then of course Sam started saying embarrassing shit, like how Dean’s been so different recently, and that he doesn’t know if that’s due to GISHWHES or Cas. Dean managed to shove him away only for Jo to wander over and start telling Cas a story about how her mom once found five year old Dean, naked, swimming in the lake, trying to find the lochness monster.

Cas of course found this hilarious, Dean of course found this mortifying and got rid of Jo only to have Garth bound up to them, drunk as a vicar (even though Dean was pretty sure he’d only had a couple of drinks).  He proceeded to hug Dean, while enthusiastically telling Cas how great the Winchester was.

Finally, in a moment of peace from Dean’s ‘friends’, he leaned in to Cas to ask if they could find some place quiet for a second.

Cas nodded sympathetically, and lead him upstairs to a bedroom.

“Is this your bedroom?” Dean asked, smiling lewdly at Cas as he shut the door behind them.

“No. I hear it’s not very gentlemanly to take your significant other to your bedroom until the third date. This is Gabriel’s room.”

“I think it’s even less gentlemanly to have a make out session in your brothers room,” Dean smirked.

“I di-” Castiel’s plea of innocence was ruined by Dean leaning forward and kissing him softly. Cas melted into the embrace immediately. When they surfaced for air, Cas chuckled.

“Since when did you get so smooth Mr. Winchester?”

Dean smiled, and shrugged, and scooped Castiel into an unexpected hug.

They stayed like this until a freaking conga line barged into the room, Cas and Dean being forced to join the end.

So goes the behaviour of people mad enough to join GISHWHES.

“So who’s up for GISHWHES 2015?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for sticking with me this far! truly thanks for the encouragement and the kudos and the comments and i hope you enjoyed it as much as i have :))


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